Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Wonder Twin Powers

I'm here to confess. Jess and I have a problem. It started innocently enough. When we first started going out, we noticed that we owned a lot of the same things; a Mountain Hardware bag here, a pair of Keen's there. Wow, we're so compatible and well matched, we thought.

She was shopping for a new bike and just happened to find a great commuter bike with all the features I'd been wanting. So I got one too. Well, it was a little more round about than that, but that's another story.

She got cool new bike shoes. Wow, those are perfect, I thought. A few months later, I had a pair.

Over time, it became clear that when it comes to clothes and sporting gear, we have exactly the same taste in just about everything. Yeah, we're those lesbians.

The really sad part is that we barely try to hold back anymore (if we ever did). I mean, when you find what you like, you gotta have it right?

Consider a recent trip to REI. We were both looking for some new pants, something non-cotton that would be good to ride in, but also look nice when we got to our destination. I took a few things into the dressing room, but wasn't happy with them. She kindly offered to go out and look for some other brands.

A few minutes later she came back with a new option, but the fit was terrible. She went back out again. When she came back, she had some tan pants that looked like casual dress slacks, but were stretchy and comfortable and would dry quickly. "I'm going to try them on too," she said. (The warning bell should have gone off then).

"These are cool, I like them," I said. And they were on sale of course. Jess rarely pays full price for anything at Really Expensive Items. That's when she suddenly turned on me.

"I found them," she said, holding them protectively. "They're mine."

"What!? I sent you out to look for pants for me!"

"Well, I could have said I didn't find anything and come back later without you," she said.

"Oh HO! I see how you are! You had no intention of letting me leave with these pants!"

A Cheshire cat grin was her only reply.

Buying two pair was out of the question. We've sunk pretty low in the matching department, but we do have limits. We tend to be a bit more strict about 'regular' clothes than sports-specific stuff. If we both bought them, there's no way we'd both wear them at the same time anyway. After much cajoling on my part and a promise not to wear them everyday and get bike grease on them, we agreed to a shared pants arrangement.

I had made many similar agreements with mom over the years but this time I didn't have to argue over who's closet the clothes would live in.

In our defense, we do try to get different colors when we can. But in the case of bike gear (rain jacket, rain pants, shoes, bike shorts), there's usually not much choice. So at this point you're wondering---how bad can it be? Off the top of my head, here's a list of all the matching gear we own.